Over 412,000 Ontarians used food banks every month in 2012, an all-time high, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.

’Tis the season of giving, and now is the time to help stock the shelves at your local food bank.

Food bank use in Ontario has hit an all-time high, with more than 412,000 people accessing food support programs each month in 2012, a new http://www.oafb.ca Ontario Association of Food Banks report has revealed.

More than 160,000 were children, making kids a rising demographic in need of help.

“There are more children, and that’s because parents who used to have good-paying jobs don’t have them anymore,” said Bill Laidlaw, executive director of the association.

He cited the province’s cutbacks to social services, mass factory and plant layoffs, rising food and living costs, and droughts and floods in rural Ontario as causes of the growing need.

The fastest growing groups using food banks are single mothers, senior citizens, the working poor, university students and recent graduates, Laidlaw added.

The association is calling on the province to create policies to end hunger, like tax credits for farmers and housing benefits for low-income people, but Laidlaw added that everyone in the province can help.

“I think Ontarians have to look at their moral compass, and say, ‘In a society like this, we look after our own,’ ” he said.

In 2011, about 395,000 Ontarians used food banks per month, and 374,000 used them during the 2008 recession.

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